Wisconsin faces an end-of-game challenge vs Ohio State

More on Wisconsin vs Ohio State

The Wisconsin Badgers face many challenges on Sunday against the Ohio State Buckeyes. They are facing an opponent which has won three games in a row. They are facing Kaleb Wesson and will be hard-pressed to shut him out in the final six and a half minutes of regulation a second time this season. Doing so once is an amazing achievement. The Badgers can’t count on replicating it in the Kohl Center. Wisconsin is playing Ohio State without Kobe King, which could alter the matchup in unwelcome ways. You can see and appreciate that many aspects of this game could become difficult for the Badgers to handle.

The dimension of this game — more precisely, the challenge of this game — we will focus on in this piece, however, goes beyond the first Ohio State matchup. This is a broader issue with Wisconsin which reaches through the past few weeks of competition.

Against Minnesota this past Wednesday, versus Purdue on Jan. 24, and against Michigan State on Jan. 17, Wisconsin was blown out, which meant the final few minutes of regulation were garbage time. Against Iowa on Jan. 27 and against Michigan State on Feb. 1, Wisconsin’s offense died in the final several minutes of regulation. Against Michigan State on Feb. 1, the defense was able to bail out the offense, but the Badgers did not have similar luck against the Hawkeyes a few days earlier.

The question is a commentary in itself: How often has Wisconsin — in a close Big Ten game — executed consistently well on offense in the final five to eight minutes of regulation? Not very often. That we have to ask the question is a statement and an indication of this team’s limitations at the offensive end of the floor.

If there is one area in which Greg Gard needs to get more out of his team, it is precisely this: Consistent, quality execution in halfcourt sets in the final five minutes of close games.

In tennis, it is so much easier to serve at 1-1 in the first set as opposed to 5-5 in the third set, when so much more pressure weighs on an athlete’s mind. Similarly, it is so much easier to perform midway through the first half, when the enormity of the moment isn’t nearly as suffocating or terrifying. It is a lot harder to piece together calm and fluid possessions late in a game, when the awareness of the stakes becomes conspicuously prevalent.

Maybe Wisconsin will blow Ohio State out of the water. I certainly didn’t expect UW to get blown out by Minnesota, and yet it happened. Maybe this game won’t even be close.

However, if it is, Wisconsin needs to show its offense won’t break down under pressure. Ohio State isn’t likely to suffer another crippling drought of its own in the final six and a half minutes of regulation.